Shame. Shame on me for almost missing this album from March's review pile. Call Of The Infinite could not be more up my street if they bought the house next to me. Admittedly they'd fill that house with widdly guitar textures, chunky repeating riffs, spatial atmospheres and aggression in all the right places. So I'd probably want live there as well.
Enough about houses though what is this album from Belgian 5-piece like? Well it's got all the things I referred to in my long-winded analogy but also much more. It's a progressive record in that each song delves into the technical ability of these musicians but forms songs that have intense melody, moments of clarity and then the all important riffs metal fans want.
Growled vocals and angular heaviness on tracks such as Major, make you sit up and take notice of this debut album, the switch to ambient moments like on New Levels is organic never feeling forced as they encompass a whole host of progressive music styles, never quite letting you feel comfortable before they whisk you away into so fluid guitars solos or a widdly bass part, a percussive flourish.
I wonder if there's an influence from the freeform Belgian jazz scene as URSA don't seem constrained in their composition, you can definitely hear that the band started out as an instrumental act, the depth of playing is at such a high level that you still get shivers when listing to the instrumental version of the record. There is a need for vocals though, they're often brought in as counterpoint to the melodic tones, increasing the gutteral punch of the heavy parts such as Advance.
Only just a year old, there's years of talent in this band and it shines through in every moment of Call Of The Infinite. 9/10
Gates To Hell - Death Comes To All (Nuclear Blast) [Matt Bladen]
Enlisting Randy LeBoeuf as the producer for this record is a very smart decision, he his a maximum noisemaker as anyone who heard the new Kubali Khan TX album will attest. With Randy in the producer chair you know Gates To Hell's new album will be utterly devastating sonically.
Death Comes To All is their second album and this Louisville death metal mob want to fully wreck your skeleton with grimy, grungy, ear shredding extreme metal. The record has a lot of death dirtiness, the ferocity of hardcore and many other gnarly sounds in between. It forces you to confront aggressive music head on, it's raw and intense and not for the faint of heart.
Tracks such as Weeping In Pain have that brutal Nu-Core vibe of bands such as Slipknot as abrasive guitar slides shift into blasts and then breakdowns, 21 Sacraments is bludgeoning and many of these tracks such as Sacrificial Deed pack multiple riffs, breakdowns and frenzy into less than two minutes of run time on average.
A skin peeling death metal record that is a brash as it is brisk, Gates To Hell have big things ahead. 8/10
Destruction - Birth Of Malice (Napalm Records) [Rich Piva]
I was once banned for life from all Caldor stores in the US for attempting to steal the cassette of Destruction’s Cracked Brain. Joke’s on you Caldor, since you have not existed since you closed all 145 of your stores in 1999. Wait, I think I am off track here. I am actually supposed to be reviewing the new record from the German thrash legends, Birth Of Malice, their sixteenth album, and what do you know, it is really good.
There has been some of these “legendary thrash bands release good records 30-40 years in” situations over the past couple of years, specifically the latest Flotsam and Jetsam record and the absolute ripper from Overkill. I am not sure Birth Of Malice is as good as those records, but it is a worthy effort 40 years in, with this incarnation of the band.
Why it took 40 years for the band to have a song called Destruction is a miss on their part, but they have fixed this with the first full track, which rips and is super fun thrash, finally announcing to the world that they are Destruction. I love it when bands get heavier as the years go by, because Destruction sounds as heavy as they ever have on tracks like No King – No Masters and Scumbag Human Race.
Why it took 40 years for the band to have a song called Destruction is a miss on their part, but they have fixed this with the first full track, which rips and is super fun thrash, finally announcing to the world that they are Destruction. I love it when bands get heavier as the years go by, because Destruction sounds as heavy as they ever have on tracks like No King – No Masters and Scumbag Human Race.
God Of Gore is as good as any thrash song that has come out in a long time, period. The production on the record sounds great too. Let’s be real though, this is not a bunch of 60 or 70-year-olds up there, as Marcel Schirmer on bass is the only original member and the guy who has been in the band the longest besides him has been only since 2019.
The record is a bit long, at 50-plus minutes it is a lot. We could have done without a couple tracks and we really didn’t need the Accept cover, but overall, this is a fun outing from a classic thrash band.
A fun record if you dig old school thrash done by a legendary band, especially can get around the fact that Destruction is a much different band personnel-wise then they were back in the day. Birth Of Malice is a good release for this version of Destruction in 2025. 7/10
Black & Damned - Resurrection (RPM - ROAR)[Rich Piva]
A fun record if you dig old school thrash done by a legendary band, especially can get around the fact that Destruction is a much different band personnel-wise then they were back in the day. Birth Of Malice is a good release for this version of Destruction in 2025. 7/10
Black & Damned - Resurrection (RPM - ROAR)[Rich Piva]
Black & Damned play a traditional metal style that sounds a bit too polished for my taste, but certainly can pull off sounding like the Judas Priest stuff people rank at the back end of their discography on their latest and third full length, Resurrection.
The band is very polished, too polished, and there are all sorts of layers of instrumentation and vocals going, as if there were 96 tracks used, when really all they needed were a few, because these guys can play and understand old school metal. But there are ten songs on this record, and they all kind of sound the same.
I can not really tell the difference between Ruthless Wrath and Silence Breaker, or really any of them for that matter. The songs are fine, but do I ever need to hear them again, and if I did would I know who it was? Probably not. Resurrection is also a lot, as the 45-minutes seems like 65.
I am sure there are some people who will like this, but given all of the other amazing metal bands out there today doing this style and bringing something different to the party, I can say that the new Black & Damned record is not for me. 4/10
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